The Welcoming Prayer

Presented by Mary Dwyer

As a companion to Centering Prayer, Welcoming Prayer focuses on the disturbances that beset our daily life and allows us freely to acknowledge and surrender their power to God. We begin to respond rather than automatically react to life on life’s terms. As the originator of Welcoming Prayer, Mary Mrozowski, said, “To welcome and to let go is one of the most radically loving, faith-filled gestures we can make in each moment of each day. It is an open-hearted embrace of all that is in ourselves and in the world.” During this half-day online retreat, we will learn about the conceptual background and the method of The Welcoming Prayer, and we will practice it in community.

Meet Mary Dwyer

An early student of Fr. Thomas Keating, Mary has been practicing Centering Prayer since the 1980s. In the early 1990s, she lived at Chrysalis House, a contemplative community in Warwick, New York, blessed by Fr. Keating, with housemates who included Mary Mrozowski, David Frenette and Cathy McCarthy. The community became an incubator of practice and programs in the early years of Contemplative Outreach’s growth. Mary calls this period her “inpatient” or “residential treatment time” that proved to her that a life of prayer, consent, and practice is real, stable, and deeply rewarding.

Mary has given years of service to Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., including as a member of the Contemplative Outreach Faculty and Gift Committee, coordinator for the Living Flame program, and coordinator of the Miami Chapter. In January she stepped down as chairperson of the COL Governing Board. She continues to serve the Finance/Legal Team and the Welcoming Prayer Service Team.

Mary now divides her time between private practice as a licensed clinical social worker and leadership of retreats and workshops on behalf of Contemplative Outreach throughout the US and internationally. She lives with her husband in Erie, PA.

Please see the link below to register.